The projected N22.44 billion to feed convicts has drawn the ire of lawyers.
The Correctional Service is specifically required to spend N22,447,582,237 on the specified item. The sum, which is a component of the executive proposal made by the Federal Government in the 2023 Appropriations Bill, also includes more than N304.39 billion for the parent ministry of interior.
The Nigeria Correctional Service receives N91.79 billion, while the ministry of the interior's headquarters gets N2.66 billion. According to the overview of the prison population by convicted and awaiting trial individuals as of October 17, 2022, there were 76,203 inmates overall, including 74,574 male inmates, 1,629 female inmates, 23,131 convicted inmates, 22,742 male inmates, and 389 female inmates.
While there are 53,072 prisoners awaiting trial, 51,832 of them are men and 1,240 are women. Inmates who have been found guilty make up 30% of the prison population, while those who are still awaiting trial make up 70%. Male prisoners make up 98% of the total population, while female prisoners make up 2%.
The proposed N22.44 billion by the Federal Government to feed prisoners nationwide in 2023 appears wildly improbable because the prisoners will still not be fed well. Some prisoners who were incarcerated when the feeding allowance was raised from N450 per day to N750 and N1000 per prisoner claimed that even with the rise from N750 to N1,000 per prisoner, they still don't eat well.
Senior attorneys and former prisoners discussed whether it is prudent for the Federal Government to spend so much money when more than two-thirds of the prisoners are awaiting trial with Judiciary Watch. According to law scholar Prof. Sam Erugo, SAN, it is challenging to justify in terms of social fairness.
Although it is the government's duty to care for prisoners, including those who are awaiting detention, he claimed that it is ironic that the Federal Government, which cannot afford to provide social benefits of N1,000 per day to each indigent free citizen, including the elderly, sick, and unemployed youth, can afford to set aside that much money for prisoners.
He claims that the problem is not the budget but the dishonest system that prevents the money from being used as planned.
“It’s possible that even the budget is inflated or “padded.” Unfortunately, the issue of awaiting trial detainees has defied half-hearted and corrupt efforts to contain it.
“This is equally traceable to corrupt systems and institutions. It is unacceptable for Federal Government to be spending so much feeding mostly pre-trial detainees.
“I suggest that Federal Government should rather rethink strategies to reduce the number of pre-trial detainees to save scarce resources’ he said.
Erugo suggested that the Federal Government should be sincere in the strategies to achieve the reduction of the inmates, as a simple strategy could be to engage services of the Nigerian Bar Association and then ensure security agencies fully observe the tenets of the rule of law in handling criminal complaints.
“The era of detention at the slightest opportunity to exercise raw state power must be done away with. Security agents must be accountable for every wrongful detention,” he said.
On his part, Mr Victor Opara, SAN, said inmates needed to be fed whenever they are sent to the correctional centres but that the Federal Government needs to interrogate how the money is spent.
He said, “Once people are sent to correctional centres, either as convicts or remanded upon refusal of bail or remanded pending the perfection of bail, they need to be fed. Just like only the living can praise God, only the living can stand trial.”
Opara stated that there is a need for the government to interrogate the humongous sum allegedly spent on feeding inmates.
“The inmates have human rights and need to be catered for. The government must ensure the judicious use of monies allocated for feeding inmates. Our courts need to utilise alternatives to custodial sentencing in deserving cases to depopulate the correctional centres. Minor offenders should be fined, engaged in community service etc and not sentenced to correctional centres,” he said.
Not even half of that sum, according to Dr. Monday Ubani, chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law, NBA-SPIDEL, will be used to feed the prisoners housed in the correctional facilities. He asserted that a prison in Nigeria is worse than a toilet since it is more freeing, and that someone would choose to be there.
“The Nigerian prison is dirty, smelling and the condition of those that are there is better imagined than being told. It’s hellish. If you stay there for one week and come out, you will be declared sick if you don’t go for tests and some medical treatment. That amount of money ordinarily would have taken good care of them appropriately if we have very decent people running Nigeria. As we see in prisons abroad where they eat three square meals per day, they have breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“I heard some Nigerians even prefer to go to prison abroad when they run into very difficult situations over there than return to Nigeria because the condition there is very palatable but not so with the Nigerian prison system or rehabilitation system. It’s the worst ever. So, that amount of money that has been budgeted will not get to the people it is meant for.
“The money is budgeted for them (the handlers). It is not meant for the prisoners; if the money is released, it will be shared among them,” Ubani said.
Yemi Omodele, another attorney, asserted that corruption permeates all facets of Nigerian society and that the Nigeria Correctional Service is not an exception. He claimed that the money given to the prisons will be misappropriated. Omodele demanded an examination into every dollar that has been given to the penal system since 1999. I feel for the prisoners, he said. A covert examination into how funds allotted to the penitentiary system from 1999 to the present have been used is necessary. If done, you will discover that it is a dishonest industry.
“If you speak with some of the inmates, it’s as if the government does not allocate a kobo to those centres. The controllers and the non-controllers there are agents of fraud. Have you heard that food and other items donated to inmates by nongovernmental organisations are being diverted by the officials of the centres? Find out. If it is true, what happens to the money?”
A prisoner doesn't consume food worth N300 a day, according to an ex-inmate named David Godfery who testified about the conditions and nutrition in Nigerian jails.
Godfery, who claimed to have served 14 years and 7 months in prison, claimed that the food served there is not particularly noteworthy.
He claimed that the daily bean supply they receive is inadequate for milk cups, adding that a dog could not even consume what they receive in prison.
Godfery added that they only consume rice on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, and that they have beans every morning along with a half-cup of garri.
According to the ex-convict, ‘’the garri they feed us is spoiled one that the people who fried it probably abandoned but because we don’t have any option we just have to eat it like that.
“People use to think that prisoners eat N500 in the morning, afternoon and evening, there is no such thing there. The only people that brought things for us while I was in prison are churches, mosques and non-governmental organisations.
“They usually brought toothbrushes, clothes, bathing and washing soaps, provisions and other things. The prisons do not give us all these things.
“Even when the churches, mosques and NGOs bring all these things for us, the prison authorities will collect them and give them to those they call the office boys. The office boys are inmates who have few weeks or months to leave the prison that they use to clean and do other chores, are the ones they share the clothes and food for. They give more food to the inmates who are in condemned cells but it’s still of the same quality. Their food is more compared to those awaiting trial and serving jail terms or life imprisonment.'
References
Punchng, 'Lawyers demand probe of proposed N22.44bn to feed prisoners' (online, 2022) <https://punchng.com/lawyers-demand-probe-of-proposed-n22-44bn-to-feed-prisoners/>.
